Health services are ‘sleepwalking into a crisis’ amid fears that more than 30,000 NHS jobs are at risk, the Royal College of Nursing says.

The health service is facing cuts across the sector, with 30,000 nursing jobs at risk (Picture: PA/ Peter Macdiarmid)

Posts are being slashed at the same time as a soaring demand for care by an ageing population and people with long-term conditions, the RCN warns today.

It adds that since the coalition came to power in May 2010, the NHS workforce in England has decreased by 28,500 posts, and a further 32,700 face the axe.

In a report for its Frontline First campaign, the RCN says: ‘If the government continues on its current path it will find itself stranded in a perfect storm of a population with increasing healthcare demands but without the adequate nursing workforce to deal with it.’

Between May 2010 and July this year, the number of qualified nurses working for the health service reduced by more than 6,000.

Dr Peter Carter, chief executive of the RCN, said: ‘Nurses are telling us that they do not have enough staff to deliver good quality care. The £3billion the

Treasury has clawed back from the NHS in the last two years should be reinvested back into vital jobs and services.’